2 Chinese Nationals Sentenced to Prison for Importing Fentanyl Precursor Chemicals
Two Chinese nationals were recently sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for importing fentanyl precursor chemicals and money laundering through Wuhan-based chemical manufacturer Amarvel Biotech, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced last week. Qingzhou Wang, who operated as Amarvel's principal executive, was sentenced Sept. 18 to 25 years in prison, while Yiyi Chen, the company's marketing manager, was sentenced last month to 15 years.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The U.S. attorney's office said that during its investigation, Amarvel shipped over 200 kilograms of fentanyl precursor chemicals from China to the U.S. Starting around November 2022, Yang started negotiating the sale of fentanyl and methamphetamine precursors to a confidential Drug Enforcement Administration source "posing as a fentanyl trafficker in Mexico with operations in the U.S.," the office said. Amarvel then shipped various amounts of three separate fentanyl and methamphetamine precursor chemicals.
Around March 2023, Wang and Chen traveled from China to Thailand to meet with an individual who the source said was their boss but was "in fact another DEA confidential source." At the meeting, Wang and Chen discussed Amarvel's "ability to supply ton-quantities of fentanyl precursors to New York for" fentanyl manufacturing, the U.S. attorney's office said. After the meeting, Amarvel, Wang and Chen agreed to sell the confidential sources about 210 kilograms of fentanyl precursors in exchange for cryptocurrency payment.
The U.S. attorney's office said Amarvel advertised the company's ability to use "deceptive packaging," which was declared to contain dog food, nuts or motor oil, to hide the shipments.
In addition to the prison sentences, Wang was ordered to forfeit $67,168.25, and Chen was ordered to forfeit "internet domain names for 12 websites previously seized by law enforcement," the U.S. attorney's office said.